How Australia And Other Developed Nations Have Put A Stop To Gun Violence

The debate over gun control in the United States doesn't take
place in a vacuum.

Other countries all over the world play the same video games and
have the same mental health problems as the United States, but
manage to avoid a sky-high gun murder rate and frequent public
shooting massacres.

The differences are due, in part, to the way that the different
countries regulate gun ownership.

One reason contributing to this is the U.K.'s strict gun laws.
According to an
English rifle and gun club legal center, any person
possessing a firearm in the U.K. must posses a Shotgun
Certificate or a Firearm Certificate.

Machine guns, pepper spray, semi-automatic, and pump-action
rifles, and any firearm that has a barrel less than 30
centimeters in length are prohibited.

The only firearms that can be owned legally are shotguns, black
powder weapons, manually-loaded cartridge pistols and
manually-loaded center-fire rifles, all termed "Section 1"
firearms.

To gain a firearm certificate, applicants must be over age 14,
and must demonstrate they have satisfactory security and "good
reason" to own a rifle. Applicants mustdeclare all criminal convictions
and name two
references to support the application. Applications must be
renewed every five years.

The requirements are largely the same for a shotgun certificate,
although the applicant doesn't need two references, only one
counter-signatory — and there is no minimum age.

Anyone convicted of a criminal offense can't
even handle a gun for five years. If the sentence involved
more than three years in prison, there is a lifetime ban.

Canada

The U.S.'s neighbor to the north also has outstandingly low gun
casualty statistics. In 2009, there were 0.5 deaths per 100,000
from gun homicide — only 173 people. Still, the ownership is
comparatively high — there are 23.8
firearms per 100 people in the country.

There is
no legal right to possess arms in Canada. It takes sixty days
to buy a gun there, and there is mandatory licensing for gun
owners. Gun owners pursuing a license must have third-party
references, take a safety training course and pass a background
check with a focus on mental, criminal and addiction histories.

Licensing agents are required
to advise an applicant's spouse or next-of-kin prior to
granting a license, and licenses are denied to applicants with
any past history of domestic violence. Buyers
in private sales of weapons must pass
official background checks.

Canadian civilians aren't
allowed to possess automatic weapons, handguns
with a barrel shorter than 10.5 cm or any modified handgun, rifle
or shotgun. Most semi-automatic assault weapons are also banned.
As a result of exemptions, several kinds of assault weapons are
still legal in Canada, although this has been the source
of some
controversy.

What
is legal are hunting rifles and shotguns, but those can only be
obtained afteran exhaustive
application process. An
aspiring gun-toucher must first take an all-day class and pass
both written and practical exams. Then, applicants are required
to go to the hospital for a mental health test, and provide
police with a
medical certificate attesting their mental health and drug-free
status.

The police then investigate the applicants ;background, relatives
and group affiliations. Involvement in some political or activist
organizations is grounds for categorical denial of license
application.

Only after all that can a Japanese citizen buy a gun. Even then,
gun-owners are required to store the gun in a locker, store
ammunition in a separate locked safe, and provide for
the police a map of the location of the locker,

Australia

Australia had 30 gun
homicides in 2010, which amounted to 0.13 gun deaths for
each 100,000 people. Australians hold 3-3.5 million guns, a rate
of 15 guns for every 100 people.

Australia is a rare nation that has had a significant shift
toward additional gun control in recent years. Following a 1996
shooting spree that left 35 Australians dead at the Port Arthur
tourist location in Tasmania, the government launched a major
overhaul of gun laws.

In the decade before Port Arthur, Australia saw 11 mass
shootings; since then, there has
not been a single mass shooting and the gun murder rate has
continued its steady decline.

Here's what they did: Pro-gun Conservative John
Howard pushed through an ambitious gun control program. The
laws
banned all automatic and semi-automatic weapons and
instituted strict licensing rules involving background checks and
waiting periods for purchases.

The conservative government also instituted a buyback program,
where people were paid for turning in newly illegal automatic and
semi-automatic rifles; 650,000
weapons were voluntarily handed in and destroyed at a cost
of roughly $359.6 million.